Table of Contents

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American National Election Study, 1980 (ICPSR 7763)

Principal Investigator(s):Miller, Warren E.; National Election Studies/Center for Political Studies

Summary:

This study is part of a time-series collection of national
surveys fielded continuously since 1952. The election studies are
designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring
political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions
and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of
public policy, and participation in political life. The 1980 Election
Study is comprised of several integrated survey data collections
occurring at strategically chose... (more info)

This study is part of a time-series collection of national
surveys fielded continuously since 1952. The election studies are
designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring
political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions
and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of
public policy, and participation in political life. The 1980 Election
Study is comprised of several integrated survey data collections
occurring at strategically chosen periods in the course of the
election year, along with vote validation and contextual data. Four
areas were targeted for special attention: new measurement of party
identification, the measurement of voter attitudes concerning issues
of public policy, new content concerning public perceptions of and
responses to political leadership, and the exploration of social
networks in the crystallization of the vote choice. The National
Election Studies Board established a 1980 Presidential Elections
Committee that consisted of three Board members (Merrill Shanks, John
Jackson, David Sears) and three additional scholars (Richard S. Brody,
Jack Dennis, Donald R. Kinder). This committee, along with the Center
for Political Studies project staff, was responsible for the planning
of the year-long study. Part 2, the Pre- and Post-Election Surveys
file [C-3/C3po], contains the traditional election survey
data. Contextual measures provided along with the survey data include
election returns, interest group ratings of incumbents, and Federal
Election Commission campaign contribution data. Part 4, the Major
Panel File [P1-P4], presents a year-long four-wave panel. The panel
began in late January 1980 as a national cross-section of 1,008 cases,
and interviewing ended before the New Hampshire primary on February
24, 1980. Respondents from the first wave [P-1] were reinterviewed in
June immediately after the last set of primary elections that were
held on June 3, 1980. The third panel interview [P-3] was conducted
during the month of September 1980. The fourth and final wave [P-4]
was conducted immediately after the general election and includes
reinterviews with respondents who did not participate in Wave 3. Wave
4 was a fifteen-minute telephone interview. Part 3, the Integrated
File, ICPSR Version, in addition to pre-/post-survey data from Part 2
and Major Panel data from Part 4, contains an independent
cross-section sample [C-1] of 965 cases who were interviewed in the
midst of the primary season during the three-week "window" following
the early April primaries. These respondents were reinterviewed
following the general election [C-4] with a telephone interview
essentially the same as that administered to P-4 respondents. This
complex file was prepared to facilitate the analytic use of the large
body of data gathered in 1980. Virtually all of the 1980 data are
included in this file, with data merged as appropriate for panel
samples. The individual files for each of the 1980 surveys have been
reformatted to a standardized data record structure in such a manner
that the data for identical questions across studies are always stored
under the same variable number and in a fixed and specified record
location in the integrated file. Filters are included to allow users
to retrieve specific samples from the file. Vote validation data are
included in the file.

Study Description

Citation

Miller, Warren E., and National Election Studies/Center for Political Studies. American National Election Study, 1980. ICPSR07763-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1999. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07763.v2

The data
collection instruments file for Part 4, Major Panel File, contains
questionnaires for Waves P1-P3. For the P4 questionnaire, consult the
data collection instrument file for Part 2, Pre- and Post-Election
Surveys File.

Methodology

Sample:
Multistage representative cross-section.

Mode of Data Collection:
face-to-face interview,
telephone interview

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Performed consistency checks.

Standardized missing values.

Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1984-06-19

Version History:

1999-11-19 The data for this study are now available in SAS
transport and SPSS export formats, in addition to the ASCII data file.
Variables in the dataset have been renumbered to the following format:
2-digit (or 2-character) year prefix + 4 digits + [optional]
1-character suffix. Dataset ID and version variables have also been
added. Also, SAS data definition statements were prepared, and the
data collection instruments were added to the collection as PDF
files. Additionally, the SPSS data definition statements and the
codebooks have been updated to reflect these changes.